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News 12 Staff

125spotlightnj2_2025-01-25-09-28-28

We are talking about New Jersey sharing network in New Providence, Union County. Kelly Bon Ventre is the assistant director of Community services. E. Denise Peeples is senior manager of community services. Ladies, let's talk about your need for organ donation. The need is great. There are over 100,000 people waiting in the United States for a life saving transplant, and there are 4000 people waiting right here in the state of New Jersey, and unfortunately we lose 17 people a day while they're waiting across the country, yes. And to further complicate that puzzle, um, less than 1% of all deaths result in somebody dying in a manner in which they're suitable to be an organ donor, so we have 100,000 people waiting and a very, very small pool of eligible donors. In order for somebody to become an organ donor, they need to pass away in a hospital on a ventilator. If they do not pass away in a hospital on a ventilator, they can be a tissue donor, but they cannot be an organ donor, so we have that huge need that the number of potential donors gets cut down drastically immediately. And then there are other medical rule outs that could come into effect as well, and Kelly, we deal with that every single day trying to dispel those myths and misconceptions because there's always that misconception oh they won't take care of me if they know that I'm a donor registered donor or you know they're all different kind of things my religion and all of that. And every day our education department really goes out and tries to dispel those myths and misconceptions so that people can make an educated decision on the most amazing gift that you can ever give anyone and I'm a product of that. Someone gave me the gift of life almost 19 years ago. I received a double lung transplant and that is because a family said yes and that's what we, we, we strive to get that yes and that understanding. So it is a great need, as Kelly said, and it's a great mission. Let's talk about Jersey's generosity and show that graphic. Go ahead. So Jersey generosity has led us to 6 years of record growth. More New Jerseyans are saying yes to donation. This year we had 297 organ donors, and that resulted in 743 life saving gifts being able to be transplanted and lives saved.

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125spotlightnj3_2025-01-25-13-00-49

My guests are with New Jersey Sharing Network and New Providence Union County, Kelly Bonventre, Assistant director of Community Services, E. Denise Peeples, senior manager of Community services. Ladies, tell me all about this video we're looking at right now. Well, this video shows uh the process of becoming an organ and tissue donor. Uh, we go through, go to great lengths to honor, to remember, and to give hope. Uh, we have our names, the names of all of our donors are on the wall of our building, so we get to see that every day from 1996 and it's updated every few months we update the wall. Our families can come in and see that, but there's a process to get to donation. And our building encompasses all of that. We have a state of the art laboratory where the testing and matching is done. We have an amazing staff, uh, you can see us anywhere at any time with lights and sirens and everything going to save lives and it is just a beautiful process and each and every department of the ship. Caring network is vested. We believe in what we do and the process and the families that become a part of our family from that amazing gift that's given sometimes the families get to meet and when I tell you Della that is the most beautiful thing to see someone have a stethoscope and they're able to listen to their loved one's heart beating. And we don't leave our donor families and they don't leave us, we give them all types of ways to continue to honor their loved one from quilt squares. We even have knitting and crocheting that they, you know, we give those beautiful lap blankets and shawls to our donor families two years after the donation is given just to let them know that we are loving them and thinking about them, and I bet they really appreciate that. It means so much to our families to know that their loved ones have not been forgotten. That we at the sharing Network honor them each and every day as Denise said we walk through those halls we walk through our building where we see all of those names etched in our donor remembrance panels and we stop and I touched them and I thank them for giving the gift. The gift is very, very special as we said it's so rare and then one of the very first things we do you have a beautiful picture of a flag raising the very first thing we do when we have a consented organ donor is we have a flag raising ceremony at the hospital where the donor is giving the gift of life.

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126spotlightnj4_2025-01-26-08-41-36

You are looking at Kelly Bonventre, assistant director of Community Services, E. Denise Peeples, senior manager of community services with the New Jersey Sharing Network. Now Denise, you have a personal connection to this organization. Tell us about that. I do, uh, back in 1999, I know it sounds like a long time. I started having problems breathing, didn't know why uh just kinda came on and I, I didn't know started to advance, went to the doctor, got tested by pulmonologist and was diagnosed with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. Nobody in my family's ever had it uh back then it was considered an older white male smoker's disease. I've never smoked and I think you can see I'm not an older white male, so we were definitely confused, but we had to embrace it and figure out what it was and what the sort of end result would be and it was that I would need a double lung transplant. What did you feel when you heard that blown away because of course when I registered to get my driver's license, I'm checking the box. Oh my God, I'm gonna be a hero. Yeah, never thought that I would have to be a recipient. What did it take for you to walk through that process of acceptance and what to do next? Yeah, just, you know what it was about breathing every breath. Became a struggle so that was my focus, OK you gotta breathe you you can't be inundated with, oh my God this process what's gonna happen but I had to breathe in order to make it. To that transplant, how long did you have to wait? I waited 8 months. After a long time of being not on the list, I had to wait to get to that point where I was listed for the transplant and waited about eight months, and I received that phone call on October 2nd, 2006 and Della, to be honest with you, when I got the call first thing came into my mind was. Oh my God, somebody lost their life. I was gonna ask you about that because I know, whoa, you, you want your life, yes, but at the same time, not at the cost of someone else's and my daughter was 19, but yeah, it was just an amazing thing and I had to really process it and my pastor was very instrumental in helping me with that. Um, and the staff was awesome, so you know, after 14.5 hours I was in ICU and I was transplanted, um, and I woke up and. Was breathing on my own, which is something I had not done in such a long time. Coming up next at 9, Denise and Kelly talk about their efforts in communities of color. Students at Great Oaks Legacy Charter Schools Down Elementary School take part in a Peachtree project to celebrate MLK. They teamed up with Newark Public Safety's 9th Metro Precinct Community Service officer Kay Felder. The event combined hands on. On creativity with meaningful lessons about equality and unity, the students created Peachtree leaves. They are colorful handprints crafted by students. Each one carried the phrase I have a dream and showcase the children's personal hopes for the future. Happening today, Angels and Jay, in collaboration with Stain Fill Studios, is hosting a breast cancer survivor celebration. It will be held at the Wally Choice Community Center on Maple Avenue in Montclair from 2 to 6 p.m. 11 survivors will be honored for their journey. The 2025 Eye of the Survivor inspirational calendar will also be released.

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126spotlightnj5_2025-01-26-09-21-10

We are putting the attention on New Jersey sharing Network in New Providence Union County. Kelly and Denise, tell me all about the video and your community efforts. Well Della, we are so excited year after year we get to really go in the community we always of course are at unfortunately at a time when a family is at their worst and we're pretty much asking for a gift. The New Jersey Sharing Network decided to turn the tables and go into communities of color, communities where the need is the greatest, and give, so we have different ways that we give. We have an event, 2 events every year now this year we'll have 3. Called live healthy and move. I love that we don't want anybody to have to be an organ donor or a recipient and anything like that, but it happens but we want you to stay healthy, we want you to stay whole and we want you to be informed and that's what live healthy and move is so we go out into the communities we have basically a festival every year in Patterson, Newark, and now we're going to playing. where we go and we give out information and our community partners which include our hospital partners they come out and we give out information we have a celebration we're able to talk to people up close and personal about the gift and I tell you it is an amazing thing that we do at the sharing Network. What kind of a reception do you get in the community when you go out and about, you know, people don't know about organ and tissue donation. It is an end of life decision. It's something people don't want to talk about, so we, as Denise said, seize every opportunity to educate the public, and these types of events are live healthy and move events. Is a beautiful way for us to give back to the community that we're asking something of. So in the spirit of that giving our staff does a huge school supply drive where we collect school supplies throughout the summer and then we have a big team building project where the staff comes together and we package those supplies for us to give out to our communities. We give them out at our Live Healthy and Move events and we also deliver them to individual schools. That have a need to receive those supplies so we want to really establish our presence in the community we want people to know who New Jersey Sharing Network is before they're faced with having to make that decision at the bedside of whether their loved one is going to be a donor or not.

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126spotlightnj6_2025-01-26-12-36-44

Kelly Bonventre, assistant director of community services with New Jersey Sharing Network, E. Denise Peoples is senior manager of community services. You were talking about many families have been with you. How many years? Some of our donor families have been with us over 1520 years. They become part of the sharing Network family. They become part of who we are and what we do. Without organ donation. All these families are left with is a horrible loss to mourn. They've lost a loved one. With organ donation, they now have the gift of knowing that their loved one lives on. And knowing that helps them in their healing, it helps them in their grieving, it helps them heal that hole that they have been left with their heart and donation makes that possible. Without that, all they have is that horrible loss to mourn with donation they now have these beautiful lives to celebrate. Yes, absolutely, and we know how to celebrate at the New Jersey Sharing Network, our donor families and the community, we are celebrating 15 years of our 5K. And when I tell you it's awesome we have 21 down in Ocean Grove one at New Providence, and when I tell you we celebrate the gift of life, it is the most amazing event we dance in the sun in the rain and our donor families are right there with us celebrating. Something that is just amazing. Nobody would. I never thought that this was ever possible and now you see all these people celebrating their loved ones who gave the gift of life. You see recipients celebrating the gift they received and then you even see those people who are waiting that they're holding on to hope. So our 5K and we always say it is more than a 5K, it is a celebration of life. And a way of honoring everybody involved. It truly is. We had a, I had a donor family, um, share with me that they had traveled from California to come to our 5K. And I said, wow, you guys get the prize. You came the furthest. And she said it was their niece who became a donor 5 years prior, and she said, we may miss Christmas, we may miss Thanksgiving, but we will never miss a 5K. Wow. How do people register? They can register online at NJSharing Network.org. Um, it is a beautiful, as Denise said, an incredible day, a meaningful day, and it also raises funds for our sharing Network Foundation to help support the work of the sharing Network. And you want to talk about Gary, pay a quick compliment to him. Gary, who doesn't love Gary? He is amazing. He makes a lot of things possible. He puts our words on paper. That we could never do so we love we love Gary. He is awesome and we love you for having us here today. Gary Mignon is the public relations manager for New Jersey Sharing Network. That group picture that you saw shows Colleen's classroom. Her husband Craig is a director here at News 12.

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News 12’s Della Crews spoke to assistant director Kelly Bonventre and senior manager E. Denise Peoples to learn more about their mission.

Spotlight New Jersey: NJ Sharing Network

News 12’s Della Crews spoke to assistant director Kelly Bonventre and senior manager E. Denise Peoples to learn more about their mission.

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